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The calorie count of a politician

Our gubmint is going to make it mandatory to print calorie counts on menus.

Apparently this is going to halt our "obesity epidemic" in its tracks and we will all be slim and svelte overnight.

Yeah. Right.

I think it's a daft idea. It's yet another intrusion [albeit a small one] by the Nanny State and can only encourage them to introduce further Draconian measures down the line. It is going to be the food equivalent to the lurid pictures they plaster on tobacco products – something to be ignored by all except by the tofu munching brigade who believe everything that they are told and whose goal in life is to lead the "perfect lifestyle", whatever the fuck that is. The Restaurant Association isn't too happy with the concept, but my heart bleeds custard for them – welcome to my world of the Nannied!

The concept though is a good one. I'm talking about the concept of publishing figures, not the idea of printing calories.

I propose a mandatory list, to be attached to all our politicians; a sort of calorie count of their effectiveness if you will.

Come the next election, I want to see a small list beside each candidate. That list would consist of just a few items. How much has that candidate cost the taxpayer in salary and expenses for the previous year, for example. How about listing their number of days in attendance in the Dáil over the period? How many funerals and factory openings have they attended, when they should have been doing what they are paid to do?

This would all be in the interests of public health. We want to be able to make choices based on the facts. Those figures may not represent the quality of a politician, but just as calories only tell a part of the story of food, they would allow us to make an "informed choice", and we all know how the Nanny State loves "informed choices"?

The gubmint is desperate to "educate" us. They reckon we can make "informed choices" when we are presented with the facts.

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The calorie count of a politician — 10 Comments

And again the Irish politician is streets ahead of all others in bringing the necessary pain to bear on the populace which will render them redundant. Make sure it moves into any hot or cold food outlet as quickly as possible…mission running not mission creep you know it makes sense.

I have read reports about the 'traffic light' system of food labels (do you have that?) that numbers of people automatically choose the red tagged foods from the supermarkets because they taste better. I can well imagine this having a similar result – pick the highest calorie number because it's better value.

The restaurants and other food sellers will have to employ Biology or Food Science graduates to calculate the calories on menus. This is a clever part of the government's job creation programme in the last year before the general election. Unemployed B.Sc. graduates are going to rally to the coalition and deprive Independent candidates of their hoped-for seats.

It's fine if you are serving up mass produced portions which are all the same, but for a restaurant where the menu changes every night which a large range of choices [and ingredients] it will be a nightmare.

If I ran a restaurant, I'd think of a number, halve it and use the result. If the inspectors came around I'd tell 'em it was a secret family recipe, and they can feck off if they think I'm going to divulge the ingredients.

These politicians of yours must be required to take a series of aptitude tests before running for office? Except if they score anywhere above the lowest percentile they're not allowed to run. Pretty obvious to me. And I thought our "bought and paid for" idiots were bad.

No offense to the Irish folks of course, you're the ones who have to put up with this kind of shite.

All food and weight issues boil down to the equation, calories in versus calories out. If you are burning lots of calories your body will need more food and let you know that too. The problem arises when the person passes the point of their bodily need in a meal and continues to stuff their face.

All you need to do is eat what your body asks for and no more than that and having found the quantities required, choose the qualities desired. It's a personal matter for all of us.